Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) and OSLO PILOT will host and organise the 2017 International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) Congress in Norway (19–23 May), together with art institutions in Northern Norway coordinated by the Polar Museum in Tromsø. Around 100 curators from all over the world are expected to attend the five-day congress in Oslo (three days) and Tromsø (two days).

This is the first time the IKT Congress will take place in Norway, and the Congress’ programme has been designed to provide to IKT members an exceptional opportunity to discover Oslo and Tromsø. Oslo’s vibrant art scene—in Europe’s fastest growing capital—will be explored through an extensive programme punctuated by a series of visits to major institutions including: Astrup Fearnley Museet, Ekeberg Sculpture Park, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Kunstnernes Hus, the National Museum of Contemporary Art, OCA, OSLO PILOT and SALT. In addition, the programme will connect with one of the most important characteristics of Oslo’s dynamic and vigorous arts scene: its numerous artist-run spaces and contemporary art initiatives, including 1857, Fotogalleriet, Kunstnerforbundet, Melk, NoPlace, Oslo Kunstforening, Podium and Schloss, among others. Additionally, an evening event will bring together the IKT, the Nordic Network for Contemporary Art Spaces and Norwegian Association of Curators to connect and exchange. The second part of the Congress will continue in Tromsø, 22–23 May, offering an introduction to the complex and unique art scene of Northern Norway. The programme will begin with a particular focus on Sami and northern issues, with presentations at the Academy of Contemporary Art and Creative Writing by the Lofoten International Art Festival (LIAF), the North Norwegian Art Centre (NNKS), and Røst AiR residency programme, all located in the Lofoten archipelago; the Sami Center for Contemporary Art in Kárášjohka; and the Center of Northern Peoples in Samuelsberg. Additionally, there will be walking tours to locations like Tromsø Kunstforening, Perspektivet Museum, the Northern Norway Art Museum, and artists-run spaces Kurant and Small Projects, among others.

If you are currently an IKT member, or a curator wishing to become a member, and would like to register to attend the IKT Congress in Oslo and Tromsø, please click here. Please note that registration will close on 14 April.

Click here to see a day-by-day outline of the IKT Norway 2017 Congress programme.

Symposium: Sunday, May 21 at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO). Open to all with free admission.
The Congress will include a public symposium curated by Katya García-Antón (Director of OCA), Eva González-Sancho and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk (makers and curators of OSLO PILOT), in collaboration with Vanessa Joan Müller representing the IKT board. The symposium will coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first Sami congress organised by Elsa Laula Renberg in Tråante (South Sami for Trondheim) in 1917. To honor this congress, the year-long celebration 'Tråante 2017' began on 6 February 2017, which has also come to mark a national day for Norway and a jubilee for Sami people in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

The call for constitutional rights in 1917 by the indigenous people of Sápmi resonates with mounting critical interest and action dedicated to processes of decolonisation across the globe today. In this context, the symposium will consider the debates surrounding Norway’s own colonial history as experienced socially, politically, economically and art historically, and relate these discussions to the broader international experience. Urgent and important questions have to be raised about the conditions and rights of indigenous peoples, in which empowerment and ownership take centre stage. Confirmed speakers include Gunvor Guttorm, Rector at Sámi University of Applied Sciences, Guovdageaidnu (Northern Sami for Kautokeino); Geir Tore Holm, artist and independent curator; Hilde Methi, independent curator; Anne May Olli, Director at Riddo Duottar Museat, a complex of four Sámi museums and an art collection in Western Finnmark; and Ánde Somby, a traditional Sami yoiker and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø. These contributors are all involved in various ways in the making and presentation of Sami art and culture, approaching issues from their individual and institutional positions.

For many attendees coming to Norway from abroad, this will be their first encounter with the Sami people and Sápmi, their history and culture. For this reason, the symposium will begin with a short introduction to Sami history and activism, emphasising the current infrastructure supporting indigenous arts in Sápmi through a fragmented territory—its artists’ unions, academies, education system and language. This will lead to larger issues within the clash of ideologies in legislative frameworks, and what kind of curatorial models are, or have been, used by Sami curators and artists, in order to reclaim the power to narrate their own discourse and culture. The symposium will address the main challenges still facing the exhibition and display of indigenous art and culture today, questions about the role and definition of the curator within this setting, and how we might lay the foundations of an adequate curatorial historiography of decolonisation discourses.

About the organisers
The International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT) is a members’ organisation that brings together curators from across the world to meet, share knowledge, exchange ideas and broaden their professional networks. IKT was founded in 1973 and its early members included groundbreaking curators such as Eberhard Roters, Eddy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann. The aim of the organisation is to stimulate and extend debates concerning curatorial practice, and to promote curatorial excellence. Currently the IKT board consists of president Julia Draganović, Ombretta Agrò-Andruff, Lars Grambye, Kati Kivinen, Emmanuel Lambion, Vanessa Joan Müller and Katalin Timar, and has its office with its president at Kunsthalle Osnabrück.

The Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA) is a foundation created by the Norwegian Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs in 2001 to develop cultural collaborations between Norway and the international arts scene. Currently directed by Katya García-Antón, OCA curates national and international exhibitions, seminars and publications, supports Norwegian artist's and curator's projects abroad, and invites international curators and artists to Norway for research purposes. Since 2001, OCA has been responsible for curating the Nordic Pavilion in the Venice Biennale.

OSLO PILOT is a project investigating the role of art in and for the public realm. Combining newly produced artworks with collaborative partnerships with arts institutions, this experimental initiative has set out to lay the groundwork for a future periodic art event in the Norwegian capital. Curated by Eva González-Sancho and Per Gunnar Eeg-Tverbakk, OSLO PILOT’s working process is based on collaborations with artists, poets, curators, writers, and other specialists in diverse fields, to explore new ways of working in the public realm and to create a critical framework and a long-term strategy for future production. OSLO PILOT is an initiative of the Agency for Cultural Affairs in the City of Oslo.

The IKT Congress in Norway is supported by The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In Tromsø the programme is supported by The Cultural Business Development Foundation SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge.